| Home Surname List Name Index Sources Email Us | Eighth Generation26. Thomas NOBLE IV (*) was born on 17 June 1632 in Somerset County, England.5,8,26 From the research of Richard Lee Shuricht: 1989: At the State House, Boston, Ma.: 2. Examined microfilm of Vital Records of Springfield and Westfield, Ma., and obtained the following: A. "Thomas Noble join in marriage to Hannah Warriner the 1 day of year, 6 month, 1660." *(Note: Boltwood says the marriage occurred November 1, 1660. I cannot reconcile "6 month" as November.) B. "John Noble dyed 2 month, 24 day, buried 25, 1641." *(Note: This is the John Noble who some have speculated might be related to our Thomas Noble.) C. "Thomas Noble Sen died January 20, 1703/4" *(Note: This is the way the transcribed entry reads.) 1989: At the Pynchon Memorial Library, Springfield, Ma.: 1. Photocopied five pages of a transcription of the account book of Major John Pynchon, Springfield, Ma., Vol. III, 1664-1667, pages 133-135. These pages contain numerous transactions of Thomas, such as purchases of tailoring supplies, (thread, needles or pins, cloth, shears, etc.,) as well as food, sometimes in exchange for wheat and labor. The pages give evidence that Thomas was a tailor. They also reveal Thomas's accumulating indebtedness to Pynchon. 2. Visited and made a thorough inspection of the ancient Westfield Mechanic Street Cemetery. We found no stone or any evidence of Thomas Noble's burial. 1990: Hired the services of Ian Hilder, BA (Hons), professional genealogist, 73 Valenee Road, Lewes, East Sussex, BN71SJ, to explore origins of Thomas Noble in England. Mr. Hilder proposed three initial lines of inquiry: 1. Records of the Merchant Tailors Company; 2. Wills in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC Wills); 3. The Public Record Office for port books regarding merchants and passengers to New England. 1. Merchant Tailor's Company records revealed a Thomas Noble apprenticed in 1618 to a Thomas Price and made a freeman of the company on 3 March 1627. *(Most apprentices were about fourteen when they started their apprenticeship, suggesting a birth date about 1604. It is possible this Thomas was the father of the immigrant Thomas.) 2. PCC wills. Hilder examined extracts of all Noble wills, 1631-1656. One will in particular stood out as warranting immediate attention: Thomas Noble, citizen and Merchant Tailor of St. Giles, Cripplegate, left a will in 1650. This Thomas had a son of the same name, aged under 21 when the will was made in 1649. *(Note: The will provided an inheritance for him at age 21.) Burial records of St. Giles refer to Thomas, Senior, as a pin maker and a member of the Merchant Tailor's Company. Thomas, Junior, would have had an early introduction to the tailoring trade. If apprenticed in London, he would have finished his apprenticeship about 1649, giving him time to appear in Boston in 1651/52. 3. Port books. Hilder's investigation uncovered no information regarding Thomas Noble in these books. 1993: Research trip to London: 1. Visited the offices of the Society of Genealogists, London. In their resource library, I found a vertical file folder pertaining to Noble which contained research notes of a well-known British genealogist by the name of Cotton. Cotton had done research for an American client in 1955 on the origins of Thomas Noble, the New England immigrant. He had extracted many Noble PCC wills, including that of Thomas Noble, the pin maker. A copy of some correspondence with his client indicated that he, too, was inclined to place importance on that will and it's possible relevance to the search for ancestors of the immigrant Thomas Noble. 2. At the Guildhall Library, London, we examined microfilm transcription of the parish records of St. Giles, Cripplegate, for the years 1632-1649, to seek a record of the birth of Thomas, son of the pin maker. Records were found for Suzanne, daughter of the pin maker, born We do know he was a tailor and was employed by John Pynchon once he got to the States. One thought is that he was born in either Scotland, Ireland or Wales and stopped in England on his way over here to earn passage. Thomas NOBLE, an emigrant ancestor, was admitted an inhabitant of Boston, Mass., Jan. 5, 1653 (see Drake's History. Boston, p. 331), moved to Springfield, Mass., 1653 (See Barber's History. Coll. Mass., p.291); Westfield, Jan. 21, 1669 (see Town Records); he married Nov. 1, 1660, Hannah, daughter of William and Johanna (SCANT) WARRINER, of Springfield, Mass. 2. Their son John was the first white man to settle in New Milford, Conn., in 1707 (see Trumbull's History. Conn., Book II., chap. VI., p. 83); his wife Mary was the daughter of Dea. Richard GOODHAM, who was killed by the Indians near Hadley, Mass., Apr. 1, 1676 (see Barber's Mass., p. 323).
Impr, I commend my soul into the hands of Christ my blessed Lord and Saviour and my body to Christian burial, in full faith of a blessed resurrection, through the rich Grace of God in Christ my Saviour. Item, I give unto my son Thomas, that parcel of land lying in the farm purchased from Mr. Jn. Pynchon, from the gate beyond the house entering into the field bounded by the plowing land, the way to Springfield, John Noble's land and the drain all along the swamp. Item, to my son Matthew, a tract of land in the same farm, lying by a ditch easterly and bounded at both ends by the river. Item, I give unto my sons Mark and Luke, my little meadow, lying against the orchard of Noah Cooke and that homelot that I have bought and they have raised frames upon. Item, I give the lot that the town gave me on the top of the hill against my house on the same farm, to all my six sons for pasture. Item, to my son James, a parcel of land and house upon it, on that farm that is fenced in, being six or seven acres more or less. Item, I bequest the rest of this my farm lying bounded upon James northerly, Thomas on the east, Matthew on the south, ye river on the westerly sides, to all my sons, i.e., to my sons John, Thomas, Matthew, Mark, Luke and James, equally to be divided amongst them by my brother James Warriner and John Hitchcock of Springfield and by Capt Isaac Phelps of Westfield. Item, I give to my son James, all my land in the plain, on this side the hundred acres and the lot by the way to Pochastuck. Item, I give to my son John, the rest of my lot in ye fort meadow. Item, I give unto my beloved wife, Hannah Noble, an acre of land reserved out of my son John's homelot; also half my dwelling house, that is to say, that end next the street, and halfe the land and orchard and barn we dwell on, and the other halfe of the house lot and barn to my son James, as also the thirds of all that I here will to my sons and after her decease, I give to my son James the whole of the house, houselot and barn and the acre reserved out of my son John's homelot. Item, I give unto my four daughters, Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary and Rebecca L 20 apiece, to be paid them by my sons (viz.), Thomas, Matthew, Mark, Luke and James, to Mary and Rebecca about half a year after their marriage and a cow apiece at their marriage. And in case any of my children should dye, not leaving any issue behind them, then my will is that the legacies that I here give them, be equally divided among the surviving and also I order these my sons to find my wife fewel wood and two load of hay every year, so long as she shall remain widdow. Item, I give unto my wife also a cow and heifer, also all my household goods, which household goods I would have her at her pleasure dispose of to my two youngest daughters. Item, my team (one yoak of oxen excepted), I give unto my three youngest sons, Mark, Luke and James. And for the well and faithful execution of this my last will, I ordain and make my beloved wife Hannah Noble and my son Thomas Noble joynt executors, to defray all my lawful debts and for that end leave one yoke of working cattle, a yoak and fatt oxen and the money in the Bay due me and all other dues, the which, when my debts are defrayed, the remainder I would have go to pay my daughter's portions. But in case the same shall be too little to clear my due debts, that then they are to raise what is sufficient out of the legacies, I have here given to my children, to do the same. In witness whereof I set to my hand and seal this eleventh day of May, Ano Dom., 1697.
Thomas died on 20 January 1704 at the age of 71 in Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.5 Thomas NOBLE IV (*) and Hannah WARRINER (*) were married on 1 November 1660 in Hampshire County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.5 Hannah WARRINER (*), daughter of William WARRINER and Joanna SCANT, was born on 17 August 1643 in Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.5 She died on 12 May 1721 at the age of 77 in Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.5 Thomas NOBLE IV (*) and Hannah WARRINER (*) had the following children:
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